Beautiful Redemption
by Lady Nightshade
Summary: Cloud was not expecting to find someone from his childhood home on a typical delivery, especially not someone he thought to be dead. But when he does see her he finds himself taking on the role of comforter to a familar face. Prologue to a future fic.


Beautiful Redemption  
Author's Notes: Takes place six months before Final Fantasy VII: Children of the Goddess a longer piece of fanfiction that I am working on and a few months after Dirge of Cerberus which I have never played and can't play until I get my hands on a PS2 so all mentions of that game are based on information I have learned from the web.

Thanks to Kaye for suggesting the sleep materia and to Nick who was also a great help.

Meh, not entirely sure I totally like how well the night scene between you and Cloud went but I like everything else!

Disclaimer: I own nothing that doesn't belong to me.

It starts out in a dark abyss, but then again it always started out in a dark abyss, with a large ominous looking tree off to the side and hanging from one of the sturdier branches was a noose, the sounds of water could be heard faintly in the background. It would start off peaceful in a warped sense before the voices would start soft at first, always soft and gentile like a whispering wind while at the same time there would be a hissing quality to it.

'Your fault! Your fault!'

Then it would steadily get louder and louder, faster and faster as rough hands would grab her and drag her to the noose, until the angry shouts were jumbled together in a pandemonium of sounds giving her a headache while she struggles against the restraining hands.

'Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!'

She then notices that the noose is made of her own hair, that she realizes has been chopped from her head leaving a brutally short hair style that is uneven and hideous. The hands lifted her up onto a platform that she hadn't noticed before now and slipped the noose around her neck before kicking the platform out from under her feet.

'Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!'

The noose tightens and she starts chocking, clawing at the noose that is tight around her neck.

Within the pandemonium of voices she thinks she can now make out two voices that she can never forget.

Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockheart.

'Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!'

Then there is silence as the rope snaps, like it always does, and she collapses to her knees on the ground gasping for much needed air. She reaches up and pulls the noose away from her neck and flings it to the side before noticing the red liquid on her hands. She stares down at them and her eyes widen in terror. A scream bubbles up in her throat as she continues to chant the word, no, in her head while scrambling to her feet towards the body of water that seems to fill the space with its sound.

'No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!'

She stumbles into the body of water and collapses to her knees staring at her blood soaked reflection in horror. The voices start up again creating even more pandemonium with the joining of her own voice.

'Your fault! No! Your fault! No! Your fault! No! Your fault! Please! Your fault! Please! Your fault! Please, no! Your fault! I'm sorry! Your fault! I'm sorry! Your fault! I'm so sorry! Your fault! Yes! Your fault! Yes!'

She finally releases the scream only for one final shout to drown it out.

'YOUR FAULT!'

CRASH!

She jerks awake the scream from her dream stopping at her throat in her reality and chocking her slightly has she gasps for breath while tears trail down her face.

Gabriella Bloodsight is back in her bedroom and her window is has another hole in it. She throws her threadbare covers back when she gets her breathing back to normal and turns on the bedside light has she sits at the edge of her hard bed. Someone had thrown a rock, larger than her fist, through her window again. She stared at the floor beside her bed and saw it lying on top of the top of a frame it had knocked over. She sighed and slipped into her slippers and carefully made her way over to the knocked over frame. She carefully crouched down and picked up the rock, placing it to the side she flipped over the frame and examined the photograph behind the cracked glass.

She didn't need to see it clearly to know what scene was forever captured in the photograph. She had seen it often enough to know what it was showing her. It was a picture of her, when she was seven years old back in Nibelheim she was sitting on the shoulders of the first class solider Zack Fair, with Tifa and Sephiroth standing around them. She mourned that Cloud wasn't in the picture with them but they hadn't known that Cloud was there until later, much later. She flipped the frame back over and removed the backing from it before carefully retrieving the picture and stood up with her broken picture frame in one hand and the old photograph in the other and made her way out of the room, tossing the frame in the trash as she made her way carefully down the old, stairs for the broom to clean the mess up.

It's nearing morning anyways.

By the time the sun was over the horizon she has already cleaned up the mess, eaten a meager breakfast and showered. She was sitting at her kitchen table in a pair of pants and a tank top that were both one size too big and starting to become thread bare. She sighed and got to her feet, making her way to her front door before the sound of a motorcycle even reached her ears. She stood there, hands on the doorknob waiting for the engine to cut off and whoever was on it to approach the door before she swung it open with a sigh.

"Yes?" she asked, staring at the ground for a while. "What can I do for you?"

"Strife Delivery Service," came a familiar, yet at the same time monotone voice as her head snapped up in shock. "I have a delivery for a Cassandra Clearwater."

Gabriella gasped and leapt back the moment the man lifted his familiar head of spiky, blonde hair and she found herself looking into the blue eyes of Cloud Strife, maybe even brighter due to the mako experiments. She shrieked and his eyes widened and his hand shot out to catch the door that was about to be slammed in his face.

"Gabby?" he asked, stepping into the small entrance hall with its peeling wallpaper and rotting wooden floors.

Cloud Strife stared at the young, panicked woman before him. He knew her back on Nibelheim even though she looked frailer and her hair and eyes weren't the same colors. He saw Little Gabby in the face of the gaunt female before him. His mako enhanced eyes took in the brittle, short blonde hair with purple roots that had once been long, thick and a strange dark violet color and her dark brown eyes that had been a vibrant green. She was also dangerously thin, he was worried she'd collapse due to how panicked her breathing was becoming, and he could see the dark circles and bags under her eyes.

"Gabby?" he asked again, taking a cautious step towards her as he shut the door behind him.

The sound of the door shutting caused her to jolt and then bolt up the stairs to the top floor of the house.

"Gabby!" he shouted grabbing her around her waist and pulling her against him.

"I'm sorry!" she screamed, thrashing in his arms while he tried to calm her down. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Gabby!" he shouts again trying to bring her to the floor. "Gabby listen!"

"I'm sorry!" She sobbed hysterically from his arms as she struggled against his hold. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please! Don't hate me! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please! Please! Don't hate me! I'm sorry! Please! Please! I'm sorry!"

Cloud cursed has his attempts to calm the girl down not only went unnoticed but also made things worse and he was worried the girl was going to seriously injury herself, in fact she was already developing some bruises on her arms from where he was holding her despite how gentile he was being, if not give herself a heart attack, which judging by the speed her heart was beating could be anytime now. He pulled at the power of the dream material that he had with him and directed it to the girl causing her struggling to slow down to a few sluggish thrashed as if she were trying to fight it before stopping completely.

The blonde male sighed softly and scooped up the girl in his arms carrying her up the stairs and laid her down in her bed, before covering her up. The room, indeed the whole house, was cold and she would be out for awhile so Cloud slipped back to his motorcycle for the blanket he traveled with and covered her with it, before settling down in the splintering chair, which nearly gave way under his weight, to wait for her to wake up.

It was dusk when she finally stirred, slowly sitting up, judging from her awake state he knew that it would have been the only sleep that would have been still and peaceful. She sat up slowly and he placed a mug of tea in her hands and urged her to drink it and the herbed broth slowly. Her stomach was empty, and he had no idea how long she had been without solid foods.

"Drink these slowly," he ordered watching her careful has she slowly sipped the tea and then the soup.

When she had finished he retrieved the mugs and placed them to the side.

"Where have you been Gabby?" asked Cloud after awhile. "We thought you were dead."

"I've been around," she whispered softly. "Besides, I thought all things considered you wouldn't want to see me."

"Gabby," he whispered. "We never blamed you, no one blamed you."

"I should have seen..."

"You were a child," said Cloud. "No one expected you to foresee that."

"But the dreams..." she whispered, close to tears curling deeper into the covers to stave off the chill.

"Are just dreams Gabby. We never blamed you. Not once."

The girl, no corrected Cloud young woman, was silent for a moment.

"Come home."

"Home? What home? I have no home?"

"Home is us. Home is me and Tifa. Family. Come home."

"Home." she whispered again softly.

"Tifa's going to lecture you, you know that right?" asked Cloud has he secured the small, meager bag to the back of his bike the next morning.

"Yes," you said softly, fiddling with your glove as you watched the man whom you had viewed has your older brother climb onto the bike. "I know."

"Come on," said Cloud. "Let's go home."

"Home?"

"Yes, home."

*****************************************************************************

"Cloud's back," said Marlene as the familiar sound of a motorcycle came up the street earlier then turning to look at her adopted mother. "And his got someone with him"

Tifa looked up in a mixture of surprise and shock from the glass she was cleaning and came to join the young girl at the window. She froze when she saw the female with him and her eyes widened as tears began to form in her eyes. It had been so long. She was older then she remembered and her purple hair, now brown, and skin were no longer healthy. But she was unmistakable at who she was.

"Tifa, who is that?" asked Marlene.

"Gabby," whispered Tifa, more to herself then to the two children who were looking at her questionably before rushing at the door.

By the time she had climbed from the back of Cloud's bike she was already swept into a bone crushing hug by Tifa.

"You're alive," whispered Tifa, into her hair as if she had to confirm the fact that the girl was alive and well. "You're alive and you're home."

"Yes," she whispered, after a moment of silence before returning the warm embrace to the woman who had at one time acted very much like an older sister. "Home."

It begins like it always does in a dark abyss, but it always started out in a dark abyss, with a large ominous, gnarled tree off to the side and hanging from one of the sturdier branches was a noose, the sounds of water could be heard faintly in the background. It would start off peaceful in a warped sense before themultitude of voices would start up they would be soft at first, always so very soft and gentile like a whispering summer wind while at the same time there would be a hissing, snake like quality to it.

'Your fault! Your fault!'

Then the noise would steadily get louder and louder, faster and faster as strong hands would grab her and drag her to the noose, which like always would be made out of her own hair that had been chopped from her head, until the angry shouts were jumbled together in a pandemonium of sounds giving her a headache while she struggles against the restraining hands.

'Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!'

Her hair is short and hideous from the chopping it has recieved . The hands lifted her up onto a platform that she hadn't noticed before now and slipped the noose around her neck before kicking the platform out from under her feet.

'Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!'

The noose tightens and she starts chocking, clawing at the noose that is tight around her neck. Then the dream takes a detour and goes somewhere unexpected then it normally does. There is a whistling sound and length of noose is severed along with the top half of the tree which topples over. You collapse to the ground the moment the tree top crashes to the ground. Warm arms wrap around you and you are engulfed by the smell of Tifa has she holds you close and presses a reassuring kiss on the top of your head. The heavy sound of footsteps silence the shouts and Cloud is there standing infront of the two of you protectively with his sword tip resting in the dirt and his hand wrapped around the hilt. More footsteps followed and Cloud was soon joined by several other forms. They all ranged from lanky females to large, muscular males.

And for the first time, in a long time, she felt truly safe.


End file.
